This invention relates to a novel apparatus used during the removal of hair, and more particularly to a novel tweezer used during the hair removal process involving high frequency coagulation of the hair root.
There are two general methods of hair removal by high frequency coagulation of the root of the hair. The first is to insert a needle into the hair follicle, following which the needle is energized by a high frequency electrical current. This current coagulates the root of the hair, after which the hair can be plucked from the follicle.
However even with a skilled operator, patients are sometimes burned or cut by the needle; the insertion of the needle itself is painful, particularly in tender skin areas. Further, only one hair at a time can be treated and removed. Accordingly the removal of hair, particularly where large areas of hair are to be removed, is a sometimes painful, uncomfortable, and tedious process.
The second method utilizes a tweezer to grip the hair on opposite sides by a pair of spaced electrodes at a point spaced from the skin. A high frequency current is applied to the electrodes, and the current flows along the hair to the root of the hair, thereby coagulating the root, after which the hair can be removed.
The difficulty with the latter method is that even in the hands of a skilled operator, there is danger of the electrode touching the skin, which would cause burns and sometimes scarring. If the electrodes are too close to the skin, they can cause a burn, and if not close enough, the epilation process will not be complete since the hair is not a good conductor of high frequency energy and the path length for the energy is too great. Thus after the hair is removed another will grow again, since the root will not have been coagulated.
Further, as in the former method, only one hair at a time can be removed, which results in a tedious and time consuming (and therefor expensive) method for removing hair, even from a small skin area.
In the latter method after the electrodes are applied to the hair, a separate foot-operated switch must be used to switch on the high frequency energy. The operator must be very skilled to estimate when the electrodes are in proper positions, with a proper amount of pressure on the hair, and co-ordinate operation of the foot-operated switch. Should the electrodes be applied to a great many hairs in sequence, it is highly likely that current would sometimes by applied before the electrodes are properly in place, or with excess compression of individual ones of the hair resulting in either improper coagulation of the root, burning of the skin, touching of the electrodes together causing a short circuit of the electrodes, etc.
An apparatus of the kind to utilize the latter method is sold by Depilatron Inc., Woodbridge, Conn., U.S.A., under the Trade Mark "Depilatron", Model DP-206.